Rematch set Thursday in bracket finals –
MURFREESBORO – Watertown finds itself one win away from playing for a TSSAA Class 2A state championship after the Purple Tigers rolled to a 10-3 victory over Loretto Wednesday afternoon at Riverdale’s W.T. Jones Field.
WHS (27-9) will take on Loretto again Thursday at 2 p.m. after the Mustangs reached the bracket finals with a 15-5 win over Loudon in a “loser-out” contest Wednesday night.
Watertown must defeat Loretto once in order to reach the 1A championship game Friday at Blackman while the Mustangs (25-11) must force and win an “if necessary” game to reach the one-game championship showdown.
While the Tigers struggled to find an offensive rhythm in Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Loudon, the bats were ringing against Loretto.
Watertown scored runs in every inning, rapping out 11 hits and still left 10 runners on base.
“Our approach was much better today — more aggressive,” said WHS coach Mark Purvis. “We met for BP at 9 a.m. and had a really good session. You can’t expect win many games at this level 1-0.”
Brayden Cousino had a two-run single in the bottom of the fifth and Kaden Seay drove in a pair of runs with two singles.
Leadoff man KJ Wood reached base three times on walks and came around to score three runs while Mason Murrell had a single and a double to drive in a run and Alec Whitlock drove in a run with a pair of singles.
Freshman Zeb Major has a splendid outing to earn the pitching decision. The lefty threw 84 pitches over 5.2 innings, scattering five hits, striking out four and walking two.
Reliever Zack Self closed with 1.1 innings of perfect relief, retiring all four batters he faced on just 18 pitches.
Loretto used five pitchers, including starter Carter Daniel who was hung with the loss. Daniel threw 67 pitches over 2.2 innings, allowing four hits and five earned runs while walking four.
He was followed to the mound by Finn Duke, Lucas Lexson, Kade Lay and Ty Fulks. The group combined to throw 148 pitches and walk seven, not counting two hit batsmen.
Caden Porter had a single and a double in three trips to the plate and drove in a run. Caleb Davis and Connor Pope added RBI singles for the Mustangs.
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